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Monday, 26 May 2014

Sykes looking to build championship lead on Jim Clark rally

Stourbridge rally driver Richard Sykes is aiming to build
his lead in the British Rally Championship (BRC) Challenge title race next
weekend on the Jim Clark rally after taking victory on the opening round, the
Pirelli rally in Cumbria.

Sykes has never won the BRC Challenge on the Jim Clark
although he has finished second three times and third once. He was leading the
event last year until he lost a lot of time following an accident.

Since the first round further work has been undertaken on
the Bathams Brewery and G.I.Sykes Ltd-supported Citroën C2 R2 Max to improve
the new engine that was fitted at the start of the season.

“The new engine performed well on the Pirelli but it wasn’t
quite right so we’ve done some more development work on it ahead of the Jim
Clark,” said Sykes. “ It often rains on the event so we’re thinking of setting
the car up for wet conditions. Simon Hawthorne has done his usual excellent job
of preparing the car.”

“A win would be great next weekend but the first priority is
to get a good finish and a decent haul of championship points. We led the event
last year but were caught out on a downhill corner and the car went through a
hedge into a field and there weren’t enough stage miles left to fight back into
a good position.”

“The stages on the Jim Clark are on closed public roads and
they include Abbey St Bathans which is my favourite rally stage – it has 16
miles of twisty tarmac with plenty of places to catch crews out, it’s a real
challenge to get right.”

“Emma Morrison will once again be in the co-driver’s seat
and we’ll also have Martyn Billing’s expertise on the event which will give us
a great chance.”

The event starts on Friday evening and it continues on
Saturday with the crews tacking over 110 miles of high-speed competitive
stages.